Five-year plan to fix classrooms

A five-year plan to bring 107 classrooms up to the mark, including furnishings, lights, and electronic equipment, will be on its way to top UW officials by this fall.

It’s the direct result of work that was done this winter by a co-op student, although a determination to do something about classroom standards dates back at least to a survey of faculty members that was done in 2004, according to Charlene Schumm, director of scheduling for the registrar’s office.

A “classroom assessment group” started work two years ago, with involvement from the registrar’s office, plant operations, audio-visual (now part of information systems and technology) and other departments with expertise on what classrooms need to be like. It wrote a set of Classroom Standards that are now the norm — although, Schumm says, it’s painfully clear that not all rooms live up to the standards.

For example, one faculty member complained as long ago as the 2004 survey that in the biggest classroom on campus, Rod Coutts Hall 101, “it is almost impossible” to use the overhead projector and the blackboard at the same time.

“We’ve had absolutely no money for renovations or taking care of these classrooms,” says Schumm. Even the simplest repairs have to be paid for “case by case”, and there’s been a “moratorium” for the past two years on updating or improving the technology.

That’s where Joe Chellakudam comes in. He’s a chemical engineering student who was hired on a co-op term this winter to inspect all 107 “generally assigned” classrooms and record exactly where they do or don’t meet the standards. If a room doesn’t have a clock, he marked it down; if the lights or switches don’t meet the standards, that was noted too.

Schumm is now reviewing his findings and putting together a set of recommendations, in priority order, that she’ll submit to the official in charge of space usage on campus: Bruce Mitchell, associate provost (academic and student affairs). With his approval, it will become a five-year plan for making all the classrooms into what they should be, and keeping them up to date “so that we don’t fall behind again.”

The generally assigned classrooms, managed by the registrar’s office, range from RCH 101 with its 389 seats to a number of seminar rooms with space for as few as 15 students. They include the classrooms in Arts Lecture and Rod Coutts Hall, 22 classrooms in Math and Computer, the two big amphitheatres in the Davis Centre, and space in 14 other buildings, with various kinds of fixed or movable seating.

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Safe, sustainable, and with light paint

UW’s “Classroom Standards” document, available on the registrar’s office web site, covers everything from paint to acoustics. It starts with a set of Guiding Principles:

• Classrooms will be maintained to current safety standards and we will respond to environmental concerns whenever possible.
• Generally-assigned classrooms will support both multiple teaching styles and multiple learning styles whenever possible.
• New and existing classrooms will be built and maintained with evolving technological standards in mind.
• New classrooms will be built with sustainability and maintainability in mind.
• Classroom feedback will be solicited on a regular basis.

Some excerpts from the document’s specific standards:

• Painted surfaces should be a light colour and the front wall should be two shades lighter than the side and rear walls.
• At least one set of classroom doors should be power-activated for people with limited upper body mobility.
• Classroom layout with maximum occupancy should be displayed in each classroom.
• Surface area should be provided for each student to accommodate a large notebook or laptop computer.
• Furniture should accommodate the 5th to 95th percentile (104.5 lb/60-inch female — 215 lb/74.3-inch male).
• Chalkboards/whiteboards should cover as much of the wall surface as is economically and spatially feasible.
• Air ventilation units should not blow a strong volume of air directly onto the seating area, instructor area or near the projection screens.
• Lighting at the instructor’s desk should be 20-40 foot-candles with task lighting, and the lighting at the student seating area should have capabilities for both 50-70 foot-candles for reading and note-taking during a lecture to 5-10 foot-candles for note-taking during an audio-visual presentation.
• Every classroom should be connected to campus networks for voice, data and video communication. Instructors should be provided with an electronic control system to adequately control all media usage in the room.
• Reverberation time (the time required for the sound level to decrease by 60 decibels below its original level) should be between 0.8 and 1.0 seconds.

The document also lists some requirements for newly constructed classrooms: they “should be concentrated on the lower floors of buildings . . . entrances should be located at the rear of the room . . . windows should be at the sides of the classroom, not the front or rear, and should not be near parking lots, pedestrian walkways, fans, etc.

“Classrooms should be designed so that the length is approximately 1.5 times the width of the room."

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Pictured for posterity — and just so the search engines of the future will find something besides the brilliant zombie version published by MathNews a few days ago — here, for posterity, are the VIPs who broke ground June 9 for the Quantum-Nano Centre. Left to right: UW president David Johnston; Leeanna Pendergast, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga; Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty; Ophelia Lazaridis, donor to the project along with her husband; Mike Lazaridis, RIM executive and UW chancellor; Bob Harding, chair of the UW board of governors; John Milloy, MPP for Kitchener Centre.

Can you dig it? More of today's news

Major roof repairs are about to start at the Davis Centre, and the result, says the plant operations department, is that people inside may smell things. From now through the end of September, “various areas of the building may be on recirculated air,” a memo notes. “Odours may be noticeable. Work is contingent on weather conditions.”

A memorial scholarship is being created in UW’s department of kinesiology to honour former faculty member Michael Houston, who died July 16 in Blacksburg, Virginia. He had been teaching at Virginia Tech there since 1998, and was given the title of professor emeritus less than a month before his death. Houston (right, in 1994) earned his PhD at Waterloo and was a professor in kin from 1969 to 1996, specializing in exercise physiology and nutrition. Himself a marathon runner, he had a special interest in the physiology of high-performance athletes. He left UW to serve as director of the school of human kinetics at the University of British Columbia, then moved to Virginia Tech. A memorial service was held last week in Blacksburg, and a service at UW is in the planning stages. More information about the planned scholarship fund is available from the advancement office in applied heath sciences, phone ext. 33631.

“Wildlife activist” Rob Laidlaw and “bear expert” Else Poulsen will speak Wednesday in the last event of this term sponsored by the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group. “Nature in a Box: Reflections on the Animals in Captivity” focuses on legislative proposals to protect native and exotic wildlife in Ontario zoos and circuses. The illustrated presentation starts at 5:30 Wednesday in the multipurpose room of the Student Life Centre. Laidlaw promises to explore “the myths and realities of zoos and our relationship to animals. This talk will explain why most zoos are a manifestation of our societal view that nature is there to be altered and manipulated; examine some of the current problems that captive animals face and; look at where captivity may be moving in the future. Also, using vivid images and breathtaking accounts, bear expert Else Poulsen guides us through the individual experiences of bears in captivity around the world and her thoughts and insights into the conservation of bears and other wildlife in their natural habitats. . . . This presentation will address what individual citizens can do to help ensure new progressive legislation is passed in Ontario and the animal welfare and public safety concerns are adequately addressed.”

As reported in the Daily Bulletin earlier this month, Waterloo Region is looking for input into a project called Waterloo Region's Vital Signs, "an annual check-up that measures the vitality of our region, identifies significant trends, and, with your help, assigns grades in 11 key areas critical to Waterloo Region’s quality of life." The deadline for taking part in the online survey has been extended to this Friday, August 1. More information here.

Reprints of Building the Future, a report originally published in the winter term about UW's activities, are now available through Communications and Public Affairs. The original run of 6,000 brochures were distributed and in use by June; several units on campus had requested additional copies of the 28-page document, which was designed to be used throughout 2008 as an introduction to the university and as an update on Waterloo's plans. The reprint is now ready, and copies can be requested by contacting Karen Mason at k3mason@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 33580.

Finally . . . by the time anybody’s reading this, I’ll be away from campus, beginning a longish summer vacation. In my absence the Daily Bulletin will be looked after by my colleague Patricia Bow and will continue to appear every weekday at the customary time.

CAR

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